If necessary, the devil will eat flies

If necessary, the devil will eat flies




As in: "You walked 5 miles home last night? / Well I missed the last bus. If necessary, the devil will eat flies"

In times of famine the devil feeds on flies

German: "In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen"

Meaning: comparable to the English "Beggars can't be choosers". Why on earth might the Devil need to feed on anything at all? Well, apparently the Aramaic word for "devil" is "ba'al-debaba", which literally means "Lord of the Flies". In this context, "In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen" would seem to describe a situation of the Devil being in such desperate need or want that he might eat his own offspring. That's one of about seventy-five million theories, anyway - a number of other explanations invoke metaphysics, which I find too boring to mention here.


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